


Man’s Best Friend

by Nyxxie



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Character Study, Dogmeat is a Good Boy, Dogs, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, Mentions of PTSD, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxxie/pseuds/Nyxxie
Summary: A grieving widow and pissed off mother finds a friend in a loyal German Shepherd.
Relationships: Female Sole Survivor & Preston Garvey, Female Sole Survivor/Male Sole Survivor
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Man’s Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. It’s been a while. I thought I’d put some fluff out there while I hide from the world. And who is fluffier than the goodest boy in Fallout? So have some dog-centric stuff

Nate had been a dog lover.  
Which isn’t to say Nora didn’t like dogs. Her dad had had an Irish Setter named Phoebe, who Nora had grown up with, and that dog had been her Dad’s best friend. Phoebe had passed just a little after he did, and Nora would be lying if those two losses so close together hadn’t hit hard.  
It was partly because of that that she had never had a pet of her own. Until Nate had decided to change that.  
Fucking wonderful, sweet boy scout Nate, who’d come home one day with a massive, slobbery mutt dragging him through the door. Nora had been watching the news, quietly going over paperwork on the coffee table when they’d barged in, Nate grinning ear to ear.  
“Nora! Meet Rex!” He’d announced, as a large boxer mix had promptly jumped over and slobbered on her papers and her pants.  
“Hm.” Nora had said, nose to muzzle with the panting, small horse of an animal. “When did we get a dog, Nate?”  
“Um, just now.” He said with a grin. Rex ran back to him, wagging his tail happily. “Isn’t he great?”  
Nora sighed, but relaxed into the couch as she watched her husband pet the dog, baby talking the large animal. He had those crinkles at the corner of his eyes, his smile huge and dimple visible as he told Rex that he knew ‘Mama’ would like him.  
Oh, that wasn’t fair.  
“How long have you been planning this?” Nora asked.  
“A couple weeks? His old owner couldn’t look after him anymore. Lisa at the office told me about Rex and I had to meet him!” Nate was beaming. “And I did, and then you know I couldn’t just leave him-“  
“Yeah.” Nora said, getting up and limping over to her husband and the dog. She rubbed Rex’s ear, already resigned. She still looked at Nate with a raised eyebrow. “One of these days, Nathan.”  
“You love him.” He said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and kissing her cheek.  
“It’s a good thing he didn’t drool on anything important.” She said, smiling.  
——  
Nora walked up to the Red Rocket hundreds of years later, dirty and sweaty, looking for salvage.  
She’d known the guys who’d run it pretty well, passing through to and from town or the city and it being convenient. Like everything else, she was ready to feel the surrealism of knowing what it should look like in her time, and experiencing what two hundred years of rot and radiation did.  
If no one else had picked it over, there’d be some good shit there.  
She paused when she saw something darting ahead, in between the pumps. Nora’s hand went to rest on the gun she’d got from the Vault, tensing up.  
The creature barked, and Nora froze. It came bounding up to her, a perfectly healthy looking German Shepherd with a big goofy smile and a wagging tail.  
He sat in front of the Vaultie, non-threatening and content to wag and stare up at her. Nora relaxed, crouching down to rub his ears after a moment.  
“Hey, boy.” Nora murmured. “Where’s your owner?”  
The dog chuffed, cocking his head. He was different from the dogs she’d seen running around; skinny things with no hair and horrible scars.  
She half expected it to wander away, as she explored. There was no sign of anyone there. No neighbours to worry about.  
Until the molerats popped up.  
Nora had seen a molerat. Once. In a book. It had been ugly and naked, but she was fairly sure that it had also been small.  
These were not small.  
They were the size of the fucking dog. And jumpy.  
Nora found herself neck deep in rodents and fighting to stay alive. She almost didn’t notice she had help until she turned to shoot one of the nasty pink things and saw the dog had beaten her to it. The friendly animal from earlier was gone, replaced with a snarling demon tearing into the molerat like a rag doll.  
One rat down, the dog turned to the last one, running through the garage towards them. He lunged, and pinned it. It was ferocious.  
It was awesome.  
As soon as the dog killed his prey, he was back to the happy, smiling animal before. He trotted up, tail wagging, covered in blood and completely unphased. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth, grinning up at her.  
She was bloody, tired, and still found herself smiling at the goofy expression.  
“Thanks for the help, big guy.” She said, scratching his ears.  
The dog chuffed, licking her hand.  
“I know someone who would have loved you.” She said, smiling sadly. The dog just wagged his tail.  
She went back to what she’d come for, grabbing rusted tools, old plastic cans, mouldering old money, and other odds and ends. Plans go through her head.  
The dog watched, curious. It was like he was watching over her. When Nora was getting ready to leave, he got up and padded behind her.  
“What. Got no place else to go?” She asked him.  
The dog barked, trotting along behind the Vaultie without a care in the world. She’d have to see if she could hose him off, or Codsworth would have a fit.  
She’d expected the dog to go away after a few days. He stuck around, taking up residence either in Rex’s old doghouse or in her living room.  
When she’d have dreams about Anchorage, or the Vault, the dog seemed to know. She slept on the couch, avoiding her old bedroom, so when she had nightmares she’d wake up to a concerned canine sniffing her, slobbering on her couch cushions.  
——-  
Dogmeat wasn’t a name she’d expected. It’s almost morbid, but she finds herself calling him it anyways.  
The dog wanders as he pleases, but always comes back to her. He finds her and whoever she’s traveling with with ease. At first, it’s just her and Preston, and the Minuteman obviously likes the dog too. Nora watches Dogmeat curl up beside the sleeping man more than once, warding off old ghosts just like he does for her.  
Rex had never done that with her; perhaps because he’d preferred Nate, or perhaps because she’d had Nate. The amount of times she’d woken up in a panic and had her husband there to comfort her…. and now there was no Nate.  
Dogmeat seemed to realize she’d needed help. And he did the same for Preston.  
As she gathered more friends and allies, the dog snuck into their lives too. Nick of course seemed to know him already. They kept watch together, the dog at the synths feet while Nicky looked after his gun or his hand.  
MacCready and the dog also hit it off immediately; it was part of the reason Nora kept the abrasive little merc around as long as she did, because the dog was a helluva judge of character. She’d see Mac slip the dog dinner scraps, patting his ears, calling him a good boy. One time they’d been left alone at camp and Nora had come back to see Dogmeat contentedly receiving belly rubs from the sniper.  
Piper loved Dogmeat, and so did her sister Nat. Between them and Ellie Nora thought there was a conspiracy to make the dog fat. She’d turn around and someone would be giving him a treat of some kind. Deacon was just as bad. The sneaky bastard actually got a head start over a lot of her little group, sneaking around in disguises both herself and the dog saw through. He must have fucked up in the past and tried bribing Dogmeat before. And knowing the man better now it was probably near Sanctuary. Dogmeat doesn’t just harass anyone for food, so when some random, similar looking guy kept popping up over and over again in different settlements, and the dog kept sniffing him out, Nora was suspicious. That’s a story for another day though.  
Hancock and ‘Meat were also fast friends. The ghoul was one of the few people the dog would seek out for playtime or pets, other than Nora. She also had seen the dog and the mayor out by the river a few times, when they went to sanctuary, Hancock high on Jet and leaning on the dog, the dog just sitting there while the water purifiers hummed in the background.  
Cait and Strong mostly ignored him. Probably for the best in the latter case. Curie loved him, but the Miss Nanny was a little over enthusiastic and tested even Dogmeat’s patience sometimes. Most of the time, he bore it quite patiently.  
Codsworth treated him much the same as Rex, cleaning up after him and begrudgingly calling him a good dog as the Shepherd shedded everywhere.  
Danse was a bit of a different story. Dogmeat liked him.  
Nora did not. She had been okay with him at first, the Brotherhood appealing to the Veteran, simply put. Then she’d seen the way they treated ghouls, synths and everything else in the Commonwealth. And how Danse himself had treated Hancock and Nicky, two of the best people she’d met since emerging from the Vault. She’d fucked up more than her fair share of people who’d given her hell for the company she kept, her tire iron a handy reminder in rougher parts of the Commonwealth for people to mind their own fucking business.  
The only reason she tolerated Danse was one, Deacon and Dez wanted an inside man in the Brotherhood, and two, Dogmeat hadn’t steered her wrong before. The dog had a better sense of people than most, which is why certain people had stuck around longer than others. Why Danse was still around, though his contact with some people was limited, for everyone’s safety. She was worried one day she’d come back to a bloodbath, if she didn’t start it herself, if Danse made a smart remark. Hancock especially had issues with the Paladin, and an itch to stab jackasses.  
And then, she’d see the dog trailing behind Danse, wagging his tail and jumping around to get the big man's attention.  
The dog had good taste in people. Even if some of them were exasperating.  
———  
If she’d been more religious, she’d think the hair ball was Nate’s way of keeping an eye on her.  
——  
She hadn’t been able to resist.  
Preston sat across the fire, watching Nora and her lap full of dogs with amusement clearly visible in the crinkle of his eyes. The smell of roasting radstag was pleasant, and they’d had a relatively calm day, by their standards.  
The pretty mutt she’d purchased from the guy on the road was stretched out over the Vaulties thighs, and Dogmeat over her calves, both dogs napping.  
Nora was quite pleased with herself, petting between the floppy ears and down between powerful shoulders. The new dog looked like a fighting breed, stocky and strong, but her personality was pretty easy going. She and Dogmeat were glued at the hip already, having played together as the party had walked for hours.  
“She’s made herself at home.” Preston chuckled.  
“She has.” Nora said. She scratched a warm, furry cheek and the mutt rolled into Dogmeat, making the Shepherd chuff softly.  
“What are you gonna name her?” The General asked.  
“I dunno. Not great with names.” Nora said. “What do you think?”  
Preston looked like he hadn’t expected to be asked. He stared at the tan and white dog, who was wagging her tail without opening her eyes as Nora scratched her chest.  
“Junkyard?” He ventured.  
The look she shot him was amused. “Were you the one who named Dogmeat, Garvey?”  
He shook his head, and shrugged.  
Nora chuckled, rubbing circles in coarse fur. “We’ll come up with something. Won’t we, girl?”  
The dog wagged her tail lazily, opening an eye quickly to acknowledge her human.  
“So what are we doing with her now?” Preston asked.  
“I’ll take her back to Sanctuary, for now.” Nora said. “I’m sure Sturges and the others would be happy to have a guard dog. Even though she’s a big baby.”  
More tail wagging.  
“Nate wanted a bunch of dogs. He grew up with them.” Nora said. “His parents had a farm, with five or six running around. Before we had Shaun, that was the plan; our own pack. We started with one and then, well. Stuff happened.”  
Preston was quiet, for a bit. When she looked up he was grinning.  
“Does this mean you’re going to start collecting dogs now, Nora?” Preston asked. “Because the fans are bad enough.”  
She laughed quietly, disturbing both dogs. Dogmeat sat up, looking mildly offended, while the new dog just looked confused.  
“We’ll see, General.” She said, watching ‘Meat get up and start wandering around the camp.  
Preston patted him, while the female dog relaxed on Nora’s legs again.  
She’d fit in well in Sanctuary.


End file.
